Page 87 of False Idols

Nevaeh’s cheeks go pink at my words. “You don’t tell me what’s insane. No one tells me anything! No one! Not you, not the cops, not my fucking shitty mom or the goddamned fucking Reaper! No one!” she screams at me before she turns on her heel and starts running towards the lake.

I watch her for a second. It only takes one almost fall in her stupid fucking sandals for me to sigh and take off after her. “Nevaeh, get your fucking ass back here!”

“No!” Nevaeh’s one word fucking answer floats back to me on the wind that’s kicked up harder now that we’re closer to the lake. I can see the white tops of the waves when they break and crash against each other. Thunder sounds above us and I push myself to run faster. We have to get inside. The way storms move in the prairie is unpredictable. We won’t be able to make it back to the house before the storm breaks on us, but if I get her now we might be able to avoid the worst of it.

There’s a curve in the trail with a boulder that marks it as the halfway point on the loop a few yards away and that’s where I catch Nevaeh. There’s a copse of trees here and some flowering bushes that I bet the previous owners planted. Stuff like this doesn’t grow this way in the prairie. Not unless it was brought in by people. Most of Bloom looks the way it does because of the seeds and saplings settlers brought with them from the East Coast. This little copse of trees is the same. When I get to Nevaeh, I grab her around the waist and lift her up. She’s going to fight me, I know that, so I keep her back to my chest and start to carry her up the path. The first raindrop hits me on the shoulder and then the arm. A second later, Nevaeh scratches the same place and throws herself back in my arms. She’s trying to break my hold by bucking against me, but the shoes she’s in don’t give her the traction she needs so she just ends up having her dress ride up to her waist.

Nevaeh screams and I go still, because I know that sound. It’s rage. Deep, dark, the kind of anger that feels old. “Get off of me!” Nevaeh screams from her chest. The sound of her words vibrates through my arms in time with the crack of thunder that splits the sky.

“Stop fighting me!” I give her a shake, but that only works to enrage the woman in my arms. She’s not Nevaeh, or the girl that I’ve loved and despised. She’s a force. She’s the rumble of the storm rushing over the prairie. Sharp and bitter, destructive until the last wind gale. Nevaeh claws at me and screams.

“Let me go!” She throws herself forward and tries to stomp on my foot, but her sandal is too flimsy and the strap snaps off so that it’s just her bare foot she’s trying to bring down on me.

“He’s going to kill me,” she screams. My grip loosens when I hear those five words. “He’s going to fucking kill me.” I let her go and Nevaeh turns to face me. Her eyes are wild and she’s not worried about how high her dress is riding. She stands there, legs spread and feet planted and throws her arms wide.

“I’m going to die!”

“No,” I tell her, but she’s not listening.

“H-he’s going to cut me up into fucking little pieces like he did those girls. He’s going to cut me open, Beau!” Her chest rises and falls fast and hard and it’s then that I see her crying. “And no one is going to fucking miss me.”

“I would,” I tell her and try to make a grab for her. “And that isn’t going to happen. I’m going to keep you safe.”

“All that’s going to do is get you killed!” Nevaeh shakes her head and throws a hand up in the air, “No!” She screams. “I’m not going to let him hurt you.” Nevaeh turns and takes off at a run. She’s running for the lake and even with one stupid sandal on her foot, she’s making good time. I’m honestly too stunned to do much but watch her for a half second before I realize what’s happening and take off after her.

“Nevaeh!” I yell. I’m gaining on her, but it’s not enough. She’s not following the trail anymore. She’s cutting through the tall grass and she’s almost to the water. Almost to the cliff that drops off and into the water. Fuck. The cliff. That’s where Nevaeh is heading, not the water. I know what she’s going to do. She’s going to throw herself from the cliff. If she were to follow the trail we’d been on, we’d follow it alongside the steep cliffside before it emerged on the other side and headed back to the lake house.

Nevaeh isn’t doing that, though. She’s going to try to jump straight over the edge of it. The water isn’t immediately there. If she doesn’t jump far enough, she’s going to land on the rocks below.

“Nevaeh, no!”

I put on a burst of speed and throw myself forward. My fingers slide over the flimsy material of her dress just as Nevaeh launches herself forward. Somehow I manage to get my arms around her. I can’t stop though, so we end up slamming into the ground just an inch or so away from the cliff’s edge. Nevaeh howls with rage when she realizes that I’ve stopped her.

“You motherfucker!” She swings on me and I take it, because I know it isn’t me that she’s seeing. Not right now. She sees The Reaper. So I let her make me her villain.

33

NEVAEH

I’m losing my shit. I know this, but I can’t stop. “No!” I swing and claw at Beau. I try to bite his hand when it comes close to my face and kick at him when he pulls me into his arms. I’m sure he’s trying to get me back to the lake house considering I just tried to throw myself off a cliff.

“Let me go!” I twist and try to wiggle out of Beau’s arms, but he’s too strong. I hate that he’s so strong. I push at his arms and when they don’t give I’m reminded that if he were The Reaper, I’d be dead. I fight harder. I have to get free. I can’t let anyone hold me down. If I do, how am I going to fight The Reaper and win? I won’t stand a chance if I can’t get free from Beau. He has me half in his arms and my ass hangs out from where my dress has ridden up to my waist, but I don’t stop fighting. I manage to get a leg free and drop my weight so that I’m able to throw myself backwards from Beau. I land on the hard ground with a grunt and swing at Beau when he comes close to me, but he’s too fast for anything to land.

“Get away from me! You’re going to die if you don’t.”

Beau grabs me and jerks me to my feet before he swings me up into his arms and starts marching back to the house. “Then I fucking die.”

“No! No, no, no!” I push at him, but there’s no moving him or breaking his hold on me. I try to lift myself up by pushing on his shoulder but it doesn’t do anything to get me free. Beau just hitches me higher up and takes off at a jog.

He runs until we make it back to the little copse of trees that I took off running from. They’re birch trees. They don’t belong here, not on the prairie. I wonder who planted them but the thought is gone when Beau slows and shoves me up against the massive rock that’s there. It’s limestone and from the cut of it I know it was brought here, same as the birch trees. It doesn’t belong and neither do I.

Why did my mom bring us both here to start over if she was just going to abandon me when I needed her the most? It doesn’t make sense. None of this fucking makes sense. The birch trees and the limestone boulder or the fact that I’m with Beau Du Pont and he thinks he loves me.

Beau pushes the skirt of my dress up and shoves me down on the limestone until I’m bent over it with my ass in the air. “Beau!” I scream, but my voice is lost in the storm that’s well and truly breaking over us right now. Rain falls hard and fast, pelts us like tiny knives. Icy water that cuts through my flimsy dress and makes my skin go numb.

“You want to act like a fucking brat?” Beau yells and holds me down with a hand at my back. “Then I’m going to treat you like a goddamn brat!” I barely have time to react before Beau’s hand cracks across my ass. The water makes his blow sting far more than it should and I shriek as I try to get away from him, but there’s nowhere to go. There’s never anywhere to go when it comes to Beau. As much as I’ve told him it’s not true, he owns me. He knows me. There will never be another person to know me like he does.

Beau spanks me again and my skin sings from the strike. He shifts and hits my other ass cheek. The burn evens out and it’s not a scream that leaves my mouth, but a moan. I turn my face, my lips and cheek scraping against the rough surface of the limestone that still feels warm from that afternoon’s sunshine.

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